Mascot Costumes & Custom Mascots Design

If you’ve recently landed your first gig as a mascot performer, congratulations! However, you may not be sure what your next steps are to ensure your performance is a great success. Putting on a mascot suit and interacting with a crowd can be a very fun and rewarding experience for all, but it pays to be prepared!

Luckily, we at Hogtown Mascots have put together this guide for first time mascot performers to help you prepare and feel more confident in your performance.

While mascots are typically designed to be approachable and fun characters, they can sometimes be a little intimidating or scary for small children. Keep in mind that children of different ages will have varying reactions to your mascot performance – some will be shy, while others will be energetic and eager to participate. In any case, it’s up to you to adjust your performance accordingly. In this blog post, we’ve put together a number of suggestions for interacting with children to make sure everyone has a great time!

Let Children Approach You
Before you dive into engaging with your young fans, stand back and wave, avoiding large movements that may be frightening. Make slower, less dramatic movements, allowing children to approach you for photos and hugs.

Interact With Parents First
If the children you are performing for seem at all unsure of your character, and you’re not sure how they will react, try approaching a parent first. Have a friendly, positive interaction like a hug, high-five or handshake with a parent to demonstrate to children that you are approachable.

Everyone loves a great mascot video. Whether a mascot character is performing an impressive stunt, interacting with fans or pulling an epic prank, catching it on video is a sure-fire way to get more exposure for your mascot, your brand, or your sports team. Keep in mind that your next mascot video doesn’t have to be caught on film at an event. Why not design video marketing materials that make your mascot the star of the show?

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the most entertaining ways you can leverage your mascot character to create outstanding mascot videos:

Mascot Music VideoHop on board with the latest trends in music and re-create an iconic music video with your mascot. Think Gangnam Style, the Harlem Shake, or Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies”. If you notice an up-and-coming song with a catchy tune and a signature dance move, create a parody mascot video to capture the attention of fans.

Stage a RivalryYou and a competing team can both benefit from the publicity of a video that captures a showdown between two rival mascots. Have the mascots compete in a ridiculous challenge and capture it all on film. For even more interactive fun, ask fans to vote for a winner or design a friendly bet that leaves the losing mascot with an unfortunate task. Film their punishment as well for a great follow-up video!

Unveil Your New MascotIf you’re ready to introduce a new mascot for your team or business, a well-planned video is an excellent way to spread the news. Consider creating a mascot video that details your character’s backstory and how he or she has worked hard to get to where they are today. Or, create a video montage of your mascot training and getting in shape for the upcoming season. There are many directions you can take with your video to ensure your new mascot reveal makes a splash.

Create Videos to Spread Your MessageInvolve your mascot in videos to support your company’s overall message. For example, create videos for your company’s FAQs and have your character help illustrate the answer with the help of a spokesperson. Making your mascot a part of your overall video marketing strategy will help foster brand awareness and help people remember your message long after they finish watching.

Looking for a fresh mascot design for your company or sports team? Inspiration can be hard to find, especially if you don’t know where to look or are stuck in the mindset of the old design. Luckily, here at Hogtown Mascots, we have a long history of helping our clients come up with stand-out ideas that leave them with the perfect mascot. When looking for your next mascot design inspiration, consider the following:

Get Inspired By Your Logo
If your brand, team, or school already has a name or logo that you can draw inspiration from for your mascot design, why not work with it? Elements of your logo, or even the entire logo itself can be transformed into a lively mascot that is instantly recognizable by your audience. Choosing a mascot inspired by your logo allows you to stay true to your brand and find a new outlet to engage with your fans.

One of the most important elements of a great mascot performance lies in your ability to communicate without actually speaking. In order to maintain the illusion that comes with portraying your unique character, you must never speak – and that includes all communication you have with your mascot handler!

There are also several practical reasons as to why a mascot performer does not speak. Speaking through a mascot head can sound very muffled and become difficult to understand for your audience. Additionally, you may have several individuals performing as the same mascot with different voices, so keeping things silent allows for more consistency among performers.

When you’re responsible for the upkeep of your company’s mascot suits, it’s pivotal that they’re kept in pristine condition. But you may be wondering, just how often do mascot suits need to be cleaned? A full professional clean after every wear may seem excessive, and also in many instances not possible. Mascot suits travel with your team, business or company venture, and thus can go through harsh environments before making it back to a professional cleaner. If you’re the person responsible for the cleaning of the mascot suit, consider these cleaning tips to keep the costume in ideal condition.

Two Types of Clean

When you’re considering how often to clean your mascot suits, there are two different types of cleaning methods you can undertake, a professional service and a DIY cleaning. Both are recommended on a regular basis, however they require different steps and have different standards.

Here at Hogtown Mascots, we’re dedicated to meeting your mascot needs from the first step of design to the end of its life, and this includes mascot storage. Your mascot will only be in performance for likely a few hours each week, meaning that it needs a safe place to be stored. Closets, lockers and even office spaces are not the best place for keeping your mascot safe, for a variety of reasons. Consider the following elements to proper storage, and why you should choose a professional mascot storage solution.

Climate Control

Like all fabric-based items, mascots can inevitably succumb to poor climate conditions. Humidity is a major concern for the upkeep of fabrics, especially mascots. Humidity can cause a number of problems for a mascot costume, eventually leading to it being completely unusable. One of the biggest issues is that the costume will begin to smell, as the moisture creates a damp, musty scent embedded into the fabric. At the same time, this moisture will slowly cause the costume to develop patches of mold. Once the fabric starts to mold, there is no saving the costume and it will have to be thrown away.

In addition, humidity causes a problem for the internal structure of the mascot as well. Depending on what the structural components of the costume are made of, these materials can also retain moisture and harvest mold and mildew. This can be even more dangerous as it may not be visible, and the mascot wearer may be breathing in these toxins without knowing so.

Are you planning the big reveal of a totally new mascot character or a new and improved version of your existing mascot? You’ve likely spent a substantial amount of time and money designing and perfecting your mascot character, selecting just the right colours, accessories and outfit for your new team or company representative. You should put an equal effort into planning a creative introduction for your mascot character that maximizes your exposure and creates awareness for not only your new mascot, but also your brand overall.

Here are some tips to consider when revealing your new (or improved!) mascot character to the public:

Here at Hogtown Mascots, we are mascot makers who are fully committed to providing our clients with the greenest possible techniques for our mascot design, manufacturing and other services. We want to ensure that we’re doing everything in our control to keep the environment safe, which is why we’ve gone out of our way to ensure we offer as many eco-friendly options as possible, including:

When you need a quality mascot costume that can endure any difficult environment, it’s incredibly important that you invest in a high quality costume. But with so many mascot companies available to you, how do you ensure that you’re getting the highest quality design and construction? Sometimes it doesn’t just come down to price like purchases in other industries do. In the mascot industry, identifying a quality mascot should come down to the following considerations:

Materials Available

A high quality mascot designer should have a large selection of materials in-house for you to choose from, and give you the option to have a material ordered in should you request it. Depending on the type of mascot you are going with, be it an animal, plant, cartoon or otherwise, the costume may need a number of different materials to create the best look. If a mascot company only has a few material and colour types, there’s a good chance that their designs won’t look the way you want them to.

A talented mascot performer builds excitement into any event. But even people who are the most natural performers take advantage of training and careful planning to hone their craft. Here’s a look at some of the most important planning tips and tricks to consider in order to make your performances stand out.

Improve Communication With Your Audience

Communication is key to any successful mascot performance, because the first rule for mascots is: never speak. Therefore, you must become an expert at communicating using only physical gestures.

Every mascot needs to know how to wave, blow kisses, hug, and generally exude emotions like shyness or joy that must be expressed with physical gestures rather than facial expressions, words and tone of voice. For example, mascots wave using their entire arms to make a grand gesture unless they are up close to little children, in which case a hand-only wave is appropriate.

Mascots are one of your most important marketing tools. But a good mascot does a whole lot more than just tell people about your company or put on a show. A good mascot can also educate your audience about a wide variety of topics. Animal mascots are some of the most common and endearing of mascots, making them ideal for educational programs. Here is a brief overview of why animal mascots are a great choice when you’re looking to educate your audience.

Adds Fun

Learning new things is not always fun. When trying to educate your audience, an important thing to remember is to create a presentation that keeps them engaged. Much like a child in a class they hate, or an adult in a work meeting they don’t want to be in, a boring attempt at education will be one that results in very little being learned. By using animal mascots you add an element of fun right from the beginning. By making learning fun, you make your audience much more receptive of what you’re saying and greatly increases the chances of them absorbing your message.